Playfully Killing The American Dream
At the same time during those years, Rick Schwartz was getting started. In 1996 he bought many great domains for registration fees and even some in the aftermarket, million dollar names for $100 a pop. In 1997, during my time playing Chess, Scott Day and others were also building their own future. They figured out how to register expired domains, and were collecting million dollar names on a daily basis. In 1998, while I was still playing Chess and hanging out in chat rooms, Roy Messer, Yun Ye, and others were also getting started. Yun Ye later ended up selling his portfolio for around 164 million dollars to Marchex. I got in the game late, when the secret was out, and the whole world got to know about the domain business because of the Business.com sale. Nevertheless, I made my way, I put the time, the hours, the energy, and for once, it was not for nothing, and there was no more “killing time”. Now it was spending time “building a future”.
It’s astonishing to hear Zynga’s numbers. Many are doing what I’ve done, killing time. Many are struggling in their financial lives, many are unemployed, many are young adults. The same time they spend on games could be spent on building a future, on being productive. I know it is more difficult to get into the unknown, into new beginnings, and I guess it’s why many hear about new ventures (like the domain business) and never get into it. They explore it for ten minutes, maybe an hour, or even a week, and call it quits. Saying to themselves: “It’s not worth it”, “Only a few get lucky”.. their reasoning may be infinite.
The truth is, whatever you invest your time in, that thing will grow and evolve, likely for the better. If you invest your time in games, you will undoubtedly become a better gamer. If you invest it in your future, you will have a better future.
Have a great weekend !
Sahar